Re: Select by Shift-Click

We're just picking up the defaults from the DSLTools surface. I've never looked into how these could be changed. If they're implemented with command routing they could be modified by the user. If they're hard-wired into the designer then it gets much harder.

Ctrl-Click will add/remove items from the selection. The last one clicked becomes the primary item (you'll see a double highlight)

Shift-Click will make a currently selected item the primary selected item. This has an effect on some commands, especially the Format/Align commands. Clicking on a non-selected item has the same action as Ctrl-Click (select and make primary)

Ctrl-Drag duplicates the shape(s)

Shift-Drag will limit the drag to either 100% vertical or 100% horizontal. Very useful for moving shapes without messing up alignment

In any case, the functionality you're after is there on a different key combination.

Re: Select by Shift-Click

Yes, they're standard VS designer commands available on the main VS menu. You'll see a Format menu appear when you have alignable combinations of top-level shapes selected. We don't currently support aligning to role boxes (the DSL designer has shapes, subshapes, and shapesubfields. Each role box is a shapesubfield), but it's on the list.

The most commonly used commands are Alt-O-A-C (align centers, used to vertically align) and Alt-O-A-M (align middles, used to horizontally align). Aligning Top/Left/Bottom/Right is also supported.

The reference shape (the one that is aligned to) is the primary shape selection, which is discussed in my previous post.